


Fall Asleep Tonight

by scepticmadej



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Bad Ideas, Friendship, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Sleep Deprivation, polyphasic sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-19 02:19:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14864777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scepticmadej/pseuds/scepticmadej
Summary: Ryan has decided to try a Polyphasic sleep pattern and Shane could have predicted that it would not end well.





	Fall Asleep Tonight

**Author's Note:**

> I was rewatching the vid where Ryan tried to cut down his sleep and I was like 'this is really fucking dumb' so I wrote a thing. 
> 
> Note: I am British - I use British English - my spelling of some words may be different but I tried my best to make it sound as authentically American as I could

“Poly- what now?” 

“Polyphasic sleep,” Ryan said in a tired voice for what he was sure was the third time in the last fifteen minutes. 

“This sounds like complete bullshit,” Shane stated as though he thought Ryan was an idiot for even considering going through with his plans, as though he didn’t have a webpage on polyphasic sleep open on his computer to check the legitimacy of it, as though Ryan hadn’t mentioned the idea to him over breakfast a few weeks ago. 

“It’s not, I spoke to this guy called Jackson and he-” Ryan was abruptly cut off.

“You’re going to trust a guy named Jackson?” Shane scoffed. “ _ Jackson?  _ Jackson was that kid we all knew in high school who loved himself too much and was caught making out with his own reflection in the bathroom.”

“What sort of school did you go to?” Ryan asked with a choked laugh, he felt the need to defend his newfound acquaintance from Shane’s ridiculous accusations. “This Jackson  was just a genuinely nice guy.”

“I’m a nice guy,” Shane said with a shrug, he didn’t seem impressed by Ryan’s judgement of his new sleepless friend. “If I tell you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?”

“There’s a problem in your logic there, big guy,” Ryan said with a sigh as he removed the headphones from around his neck, he just had to accept that he wasn’t going to be getting much work done, unless he found somewhere else to work or  Shane somehow agreed to give up on his efforts to change Ryan’s mind. Which probably wouldn’t happen unless Ryan agreed that it was a bad idea. 

“Oh yeah? What’s that?” Shane asked, raising an eyebrow as he waited for Ryan’s response.

“You’re an asshole,” Ryan said with a snort.

“Uh huh, maybe so, but at least I’m actually taking your health into consideration,” Shane said, before he dropped his voice lower and Ryan wasn’t sure that he was meant to hear the muttered: “it’s not like you seem to look after yourself, someone has to.”

“I spoke to a _ medical professional  _ before committing,” Ryan said and he emphasised that he had spoken to someone with real knowledge, because it reinforced his opinion that his argument was valid, that was until Shane had to open his stupid mouth and speak again. 

“Oh yeah? What did this ‘medical professional’ have to say about your endeavour?” he asked, as he leaned back in his chair with that smug expression on his face that sent a strangely warm feeling coursing through Ryan’s veins. It was the expression Shane usually wore after he won a debate - the slightly cocky, half-smirk - but it was stupid that Shane would think he had won anything because there was no way he could know what the doctor had said to Ryan.

“Why are you so sceptical about his professionalism?” Ryan asked, hoping that his question would distract Shane enough so he would forget that he was asking what the doctor had to say about Ryan’s video idea. 

“Because you spoke to him, which I’m happy about, but you’re still planning on going ahead with this stupid idea, which means he can’t be that legit.”

“He’s a renowned sleep specialist,” Ryan said, tempted to throw his hands up in frustration, but he couldn’t because Shane would take that as a sign that he was right. 

“Whatever,” Shane muttered, obviously not caring how renowned the man was. “So, what did this so called sleep specialist say about polyphasic sleep?”

“You’ll see when the video goes up,” Ryan said evasively, he needed to escape before Shane encouraged those seeds of doubt that were already planted in Ryan’s mind to grow. “Anyways, I need more coffee.”

“Nuh uh,” Shane said, swiping Ryan’s phone from the top of his desk, as though that would be enough to stop Ryan from walking off. To be fair, it normally would have been, but Shane wasn’t aware that Ryan’s phone had died hours ago so there was no reason for him to need the device back. It wasn’t like Shane would damage it after all, and without power it was useless. 

“Nice try,” Ryan said, pushing his chair back from his desk and walking off, leaving Shane staring at the dead phone in confusion.

So  _ maybe  _ the doctor hadn’t recommended that he try the polyphasic sleep idea, in fact he had told Ryan that it was a bad idea and  even given him a weird metaphor that included baking bread. Ryan hadn’t really been following it because he was too busy thinking about how he was going to concentrate at work when he was sleep deprived. The video was part of his job, not at the expense of his job, which meant he needed to be sensible while being stupid.

He waited for Shane to come barreling after him through the kitchen door, spouting a litany of reasons why Ryan was making a mistake, giving him a list of side effects that he would experience with the sleep deprivation. There was nothing, just the faint thrumming of the coffee machine and the sounds of people chatting quietly between clacks of keyboards back in the office. 

It was almost too quiet, and Ryan couldn’t help but feel unsettled as he watched the milk swirl into the dark liquid in the cup, briefly the colour was the same shade as Shane’s eyes in the sun which was comforting. 

Was he making a mistake going through with his video idea? He could always back out, but even as he thought about it, his mind repelled the idea because he had already committed to the challenge mentally. It was only going to be for a week, how hard could it be? 

The first night wasn’t so bad, Ryan didn’t manage to make it through in one swoop, he woke up once and made the mistake of checking the time which told him that he only had little over an hour still to sleep. It was barely any time at all, and yet it was still quarter of the period of sleep that he was meant to have in that moment. That was insane, but rather than focusing too heavily on it, he forced his eyes shut and tried to rejoin the blissful slumber that he had woken from.

Dragging himself out of bed in the morning was difficult, but manageable. It was almost too easy to convince himself that he had just had slightly too late a night, or it would have been if not for the fact that Ryan’s  movements felt slow and sluggish and he had downed two cups of coffee before even leaving the house to go to the gym. 

It was fine though, or so he told himself as he lifted weights, listening to the faint clanging of equipment that he could hear under the music that would playing through his headphones.  _ It’s only a week, which isn’t really that long, seven days. Totally manageable,  _ he thought to himself and if he was breathing a little heavier than normal during his workout he wouldn’t mention it to anyone. He supposed it was a good thing that the last time he had offered Shane to join his early morning workouts, the taller man had choked on his tea before asking him if he was crazy and ‘why the fuck would anyone get up earlier than they have to, and torture themselves with physical activity?’

Despite breathing slightly heavier and not being able to lift as much as he normally would have, Ryan felt pretty good following the workout. Part of his brain was being sensible and telling him that he was just experiencing his normal post-workout high, but he tried to ignore that part and focus on how the positives. He could do the experiment, it was going to be great. Maybe he would continue with polyphasic sleep for the rest of his life. 

By the time he made it to work the high had worn off. He felt like he needed to go back to his bed for another few hours sleep and he had a slightly painful thrumming behind his eyes. He wished he’d remembered his sunglasses. 

“Morning Ryan,” someone said to him as he walked through the office.

“Morning,” he muttered in response, he didn’t look around at who had spoken, his eyes were fixated on the prize - coffee. 

Maybe it was unhealthy for him to be drinking three cups of coffee before it was even nine in the morning, but he needed it; he was tired. Besides, it was only going to be for a week. He would have plenty of time after the week was up to sleep, do a caffeine detox and whatever other bullshit he needed to do to feel better. 

“You look like shit,” Shane greeted him cheerfully.

“You’re hardly one to talk,” Ryan retort was automatic but there was no bite behind the words because he was too distracted by the steaming, bitter liquid in the cup he was holding. He’d forgotten to pick up something to sweeten the liquid with, but he couldn't bring himself to care enough to remedy his problem. 

“So today is the first day then,” it wasn’t a question, so Ryan didn’t bother to answer. “Do you really think an entire week is a good idea? You’re going to die, not like ‘oh my god is that a boy band I’m so dead’ but actual dead.  _ Dead  _ dead.”

“Thanks for elaborating, I had no idea what you meant by dead,” Ryan said dryly, in his haste to down his coffee he had ended up scalding his tongue.

“Understandable, I thought you might be a bit hazy on what dead means since you’re doing something so fucking stupid,” Shane said seriously. It was strange to see him without the joking glint in his eyes. 

“Look, man, it’ll be fine,” Ryan said, not entirely sure which one of them he was trying to convince. “Plenty of people have a few bad nights sleep and they manage fine. It’s only a week, but if it makes you feel better I’ll-”

“Stop?” Shane interrupted. 

“No way,” Ryan let out an undignified snort. “I was going to say I’ll stop  _ if  _ I have to go to the hospital for any reason.”

“Being admitted to the hospital isn’t a good baseline,” Shane said shaking his head. “Like, what constitutes needing medical attention? Because right now, I’m tempted to drive you there myself and make them check out your head.”

“Shut up, Shane,” Ryan said instinctively. “Ok, fine, the baseline is me passing out.”

“Passing out? Passing out?” Shane asked a few times as though repeating the words would somehow change their meaning. “If your baseline for needing help is passing out, you’re doing something wrong. We want to  _ avoid  _ that from happening.”

“It’ll be fine man,” Ryan lied. 

Thankfully Shane let it drop, maybe he knew that there was no point in arguing because Ryan was far too stubborn to listen to reason, or maybe he was just fed up with trying to convince him to stop, but Ryan was free from his nagging for the time being. He took advantage of Shane’s silence to get on with his work. There was a lot to do and there was no point in wasting time. Surprisingly his attention was good for a time and Ryan found himself making good progress. 

At least for a little while. 

Ryan took his scheduled nap in a room that he had booked and when he returned to his desk, with a fresh cup of coffee, he felt like shit. 

One thing that he hadn’t been warned about was how hard it would initially be to take naps, especially at work. Every time someone walked by the room, his mind would immediately jump into action and wonder whether he would be interrupted or if he would get in trouble for sleeping - which was ridiculous, he had discussed his video idea with his boss before starting. Ryan had been given the go ahead to take his twenty minute naps, as long as they weren’t done at his desk where he could tempt others into copying his actions. 

He didn’t manage to sleep on his first nap, but he tried his best to relax his body as much as possible. After all, some rest was better than none at all. Because of the lack of sleep Ryan decided to make up for it with the cup of coffee, and when he sat down at his desk Shane couldn’t help but open his mouth. 

“Six.”

“Six? Six what?” Ryan asked, not entirely sure that he wanted to know, sometimes Shane had weird thought trails and it was best not to ask.  

“Six cups of coffee,” Shane said. “That’s how many you’ve had today.”

“Who are you?” Ryan asked defensively. “The coffee police?”

“All I’m saying is that you need to be careful,” Shane said, and Ryan wished that he could tell Shane what he so badly wanted to hear. Just to remove the tension from his shoulders.

“Yeah, I know, you’ve told me a million times that this is a bad idea, but you know what? I feel perfect,” Ryan lied, pushing down the guilt he felt at causing Shane to worry about him, his friend already had enough on his mind without Ryan adding to it.  

“Tell that to the bags under your eyes,” Shane said as he leaned back in his chair and turned back to his monitor, obviously giving up - for the time being.  

Ryan couldn’t help but let his eyes linger for a moment, taking in the worried crease between Shane’s brows and the slight downturn of his lips, it was a shock for Ryan to discover that the upset look on Shane’s face caused his heart to stutter painfully in his chest. He felt bad for making the taller man worry so much, but it wasn’t his fault that Shane was worried, Ryan wasn’t making the video with the intentions of upsetting his friend. He just wanted to experience a new way of living, or sleeping rather. 

On the second day, Ryan felt like complete shit, he was glad it was a day off and so he didn’t have to deal with Shane’s knowing glances and attempts to tell him all the ways in which he was fucking up his health. The previous day Shane had gone so far as to write down facts about sleeping on sticky notes and he had stuck them all over Ryan’s desk and computer.  Ryan  _ felt  _ bad, he knew that it was bad for him, he wasn’t going to think anything else when he was feeling the way he was, but he had committed. 

He’d been hoping to do some research into their next location for an Unsolved episode but he found himself wasting the entire day watching netflix in an attempt to distract himself from the overwhelming tiredness that was pulling temptingly at his eyelids. Finally, he accepted that he wasn’t going to get much work done, so he decided that he may as well go to the gym and attempt to distract himself from the tempting bed that was in his home. 

Nobody would need to know if he gave in, he could just sleep and not mention it to anyone or in the video. It would have been so easy, but it felt like cheating and Ryan wanted the authentic experience, he wasn’t going to sabotage anything so early into the video. He would go to the gym and get himself back on track. 

Of course he had to go and injure his fucking leg. Of course. He should have listened to his own body when it had been screaming at him to take it a little easier, but no he had to go and push himself further. He had wasted the day lounging at home, and he’d wanted to make up for it by pushing himself harder at the gym - proving to himself that he could do it. It had been a mistake and to make matters worse, he was going to go home and only sleep for four and a half hours, which was definitely not enough time for his body to recover and heal. It had been stupid of him to try and do too much and now his body was paying the price. 

_ “So this is the end of day two, um, I just worked out, kinda hurt my leg but I’m a little worried because you need sleep to repair your muscles so… “ _

He sighed and turned off the camera, he had underplayed his injury slightly. The viewers didn’t need to know that he was sitting with ice packs on his leg, or that he was planning to sleep on the sofa because it was too painful to walk to his bed. What they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, and it would be less ammunition for Shane later. 

Less ammunition  _ later _ . Ryan didn't bank on Shane honing in on his obvious limp first thing in the morning. He should have expected it, to be fair; Shane was very perceptive. 

“Pass out and fall down the stairs?” Shane asked with a grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Is this it? Do I get to take you to the hospital now?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Ryan said, rolling his eyes in the hopes that he could pass it off as nothing. “I just pulled something at the gym, it’s nothing serious.”

“Nothing serious,” Shane repeated in a deadpan tone. “You do realise that I’m not buying any of this shit that you’re spouting right?”

“It’s not shit,” Ryan said but he couldn’t even bring himself to believe his own words. 

“It’s complete bullshit,” Shane said. 

“We could keep arguing about this, but I have work to do,” Ryan said with a sniff. 

“You should start by turning on your computer,” Shane suggested. 

Ryan froze. It was off? He was so sure that he had turned it on, it was usually the first thing he would do. He’d come to work, turn on his computer, grab his mug from his desk and go and make himself a hot cup of coffee. So had someone turned it off? Or had he… forgotten? 

“You alright there buddy?” Shane asked in his ‘ghosts aren’t real but Ryan is freaked out so I have to be gentle’ voice. 

“Fine,” Ryan lied as he pressed the power button, part of him was hoping that nothing would happen, that maybe there was a problem with the machine, but it instantly whirred to life. Which meant he had forgotten. Suddenly he didn’t feel so confident about driving home at the end of the day. 

“Dude, I think you need a nap,” Shane said. 

“Shut up, Shane.”

The fourth day was even worse, if that was possible. Ryan’s leg hadn’t healed in the slightest, and to make matters worse his head was throbbing as though he was standing with his ear against a giant speaker that was blasting death metal at full volume. He was tired and in pain and he hated to admit it but Shane was right. He was being incredibly stupid, and since his leg was so fucked up, he was really risking serious long term problems. Working out was a big part of his daily routine - it was his way to relieve stress - was he really going to risk that for a video?

Not only was he potentially ruining something he loved, but he was becoming crabby and incredibly short with his coworkers and he had caught Shane shaking his head subtly at one of their friends who was walking over to say hi to them, warning her away from Ryan’s short temper. He was grateful for it, because he wasn’t feeling up to pretending to hold a conversation at the current time, but he felt a tad guilty because people shouldn't  _ have  _ to be warned away from him. 

Shane had been consistently concerned throughout the week, but his worry peaked to a new height on the fifth day, when Ryan seemingly completely lost his mind. 

“I’ll bring you boys a tub in to try next week,” their boss said as he left and Ryan lost it. 

Laughter wracked through his entire body in an almost alarming fashion, at first it was soundless and if people hadn’t known better they may have thought that he was having convulsions. 

At first Shane had looked a little relieved that Ryan didn’t look as though he was going to drop dead any more, but as the minutes slipped by and Ryan’s giggles continued, Shane’s concern came back even harder than before. One of their friends had even filmed him and told him that he needed to take a nap - he did but he couldn’t, it wasn't time, if he took his nap too early it would make the net period of being awake feel all the longer.

“Ryan, come on,” Shane said with a serious look on his face. It wasn’t the fake seriousness that he liked to show in videos, the thing that made everything he said appear comical. It was far too real and it was unnerving. “This is fucking you up, you need to go home and sleep. Properly.”

“But like imagine him in the woods-” Ryan couldn’t finish his thought because the laughter overwhelmed him once more.

Eventually it reached the point where Shane wasn’t the only one who thought an intervention was in order.

-“Ryan,” it was TJ. “Man, you need to go to sleep. Like right now.”

“I’m fine,” Ryan said through his laughter. 

“Everyone is worried about you,” TJ continued. “Like, literally everyone.”

Ryan glanced around the office quickly, the movement hurt his head, but he noticed a few people paying attention to his and TJ’s conversation.

“He’s right,” Shane said quietly. “This is really affecting you, you have to stop.”

“It’s one more day,” Ryan argued. “One more day won’t kill me.”

“Saying that is just asking for trouble,” TJ muttered. 

He appreciated his friends’ concern, he really did, it was nice to know that someone actually cared about his health. That didn’t mean that he was going to give up though, he was so close to succeeding. 

“Shut up,” Ryan muttered before Shane even opened his mouth the next day. He was wearing his darkest pair of sunglasses to stop the light from burning his eyes and splitting his head in half. Why did they even need lights on in the office? It was already daytime. There was more than enough natural light coming in from outside, what was the point in adding to it and raising the electricity bill? 

Every tiny noise somehow seemed amplified and he wanted to either scream at everyone who so much as shuffled or maybe just break down and cry. That would have been an interesting scene for the rest of the office - Ryan Bergara crying at his desk because he was too tired to do anything else. To be fair, the crying was more likely as Ryan was sure that if he screamed the sound would cause his brain to melt inside his skull. 

His leg was still sore, his head was sore, his eyes were sore,  _ everything  _ was hurting. Was it worth it? Definitely not, but he was too stubborn to give in. He was on the sixth day and he only had one more to go, it wasn't impossible to make it through to the end. He could definitely do it, he just wasn’t sure that he wanted to. 

Thankfully, Shane seemed to realise that he wasn't in the mood and rather than pushing him to sleep, he stayed quiet, occasionally casting concerned glances in Ryan’s direction. In fact everyone in their small part of the office seemed to have gotten the hint too, and instead of the usually bright, bustling office that Ryan had come to know, it was somber and silent. At some point someone had even turned off the lights and closed the blinds half way. 

“Look, it’s time for my nap,” Ryan muttered. “I swear though everything is fine.”

On day seven, Ryan gave up. 

His eyes were so badly bloodshot that it struck fear in his chest when he looked in the mirror and he wondered for a moment why he had ever thought the video was a good idea. 

He sent Shane a short text explaining that he had called in sick to work and he was going to spend the day sleeping. The reply was almost instantaneous, and it sent butterflies fluttering through his stomach. 

_ Thank fuck, I’ll come over with Chipotle when I finish work  _ _  
_ _ Sleep well! _

Ryan fell asleep with a small, tired smile playing on his lips and the blissful knowledge that he hadn’t set an alarm to  rouse him from his sleep. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!! A lot of time and love went into this so please let me know what you thought, this is my first time posting for this fandom so I'm curious as to your thoughts! 
> 
> You can also find me on tumblr [ @scepticmadej](https://scepticmadej.tumblr.com/)
> 
> I'm also not opposed to making this a small series - I was thinking about writing about Shane going over and then maybe them confessing feelings - so let me know if that's something that would interest you <3 have a night day/night lovelies


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